Could Sims 4 benefit from a difficulty slider?
I've been playing a ton of Sims 4 since I picked up "For Rent," where my goal was to bring life to my underground er...vaults or bunkers. In these vaults, Sims live off the grid and couldn't leave the home lot for own their safety—a sort of underground community meant to thrive on its own.
However, I quickly realized that my Sims could easily have their needs fulfilled, and the challenges they encountered were of my own making. Which was fun but I never felt challenged by the game itself. I play many survival games that require gathering food, building shelter, and other elements. While Sims 4 does have these in the form of needs, they are very simple to fulfill (aka send to fridge) rather than surviving in the world or sims neighbourhoods themselves.
But what if there were an optional difficulty slider for the game that effected the world they live in?
The default game could be set to "normal," and there could even be an easy mode that turns off Sims' needs, money, etc. However, the real feature would be sliding it to a higher difficulty (hard and very hard?)
How would this work? Hmm, well maybe higher difficulty shouldn't just mean their needs deplete faster, but rather your Sims have to "work" to exist in the the neighborhood they inhabit. Many elements are already in the game; for example, lots of recipes require you to purchase ingredients, but many don't, providing free resources and zero effort for your sims (besides opening the fridge door). In a true difficulty or survival mode, your Sims would be required to either gather ingredients they grow, go shopping at a rabbit hole or vendor stand, or order ingredients online.
However, this wouldn't be instant "fill your fridges"; you'd have to wait, perhaps a couple of hours for the delivery person to drop them off on your lot. Higher difficulty means longer wait times, which means you have to plan for it. For instance, your Sims might need to go to work, and if left out, the groceries begin to spoil on your doorstep. There are actually a lot of these game systems in place currently in the game - electricity, pollution, etc but most of them feel very optional. Kinda "engage with them if you like" and thats when it occurred to me the Sims 4 is basically on the easiest slider of a sandbox game and thats totally fine, but it could be fun to "turn up" the difficulty to require your Sims to actually engage in those systems to survive.
Now emotions play a big part in The Sims 4. I don't think difficulty slider should influence emotions as their almost an entirely different game system. Although, I suppose a slider for emotional length or effects could be a thing too? For example, moving it could influence how long it takes for a sim to leave the neutral state to happy, or other effects rather than instant "happiness from painting, etc" ie they need to do an activity longer to get the attributed emotion to that activity.
Regardless, this would imply that the difficulty slider controls the difficulty of your Sims' world, and less your Sims themselves. This could also affect various aspects, such as illness (like Sims getting a cold), expenses, and even harder challenges or time it takes to get promotions (maybe a full game month needs to pass before you sims can advance in their career). I really like the new likes and dislikes, these could have a greater effect on socials for example especially in forming relationships or maintaining them for on a higher difficulty too.
Obviously, many game systems would need to be examined, but I believe it could add a type of challenge that would make the game engaging in a new way, and as an option, it's entirely up to the player. Anyway, just an idea!
However, I quickly realized that my Sims could easily have their needs fulfilled, and the challenges they encountered were of my own making. Which was fun but I never felt challenged by the game itself. I play many survival games that require gathering food, building shelter, and other elements. While Sims 4 does have these in the form of needs, they are very simple to fulfill (aka send to fridge) rather than surviving in the world or sims neighbourhoods themselves.
But what if there were an optional difficulty slider for the game that effected the world they live in?
The default game could be set to "normal," and there could even be an easy mode that turns off Sims' needs, money, etc. However, the real feature would be sliding it to a higher difficulty (hard and very hard?)
How would this work? Hmm, well maybe higher difficulty shouldn't just mean their needs deplete faster, but rather your Sims have to "work" to exist in the the neighborhood they inhabit. Many elements are already in the game; for example, lots of recipes require you to purchase ingredients, but many don't, providing free resources and zero effort for your sims (besides opening the fridge door). In a true difficulty or survival mode, your Sims would be required to either gather ingredients they grow, go shopping at a rabbit hole or vendor stand, or order ingredients online.
However, this wouldn't be instant "fill your fridges"; you'd have to wait, perhaps a couple of hours for the delivery person to drop them off on your lot. Higher difficulty means longer wait times, which means you have to plan for it. For instance, your Sims might need to go to work, and if left out, the groceries begin to spoil on your doorstep. There are actually a lot of these game systems in place currently in the game - electricity, pollution, etc but most of them feel very optional. Kinda "engage with them if you like" and thats when it occurred to me the Sims 4 is basically on the easiest slider of a sandbox game and thats totally fine, but it could be fun to "turn up" the difficulty to require your Sims to actually engage in those systems to survive.
Now emotions play a big part in The Sims 4. I don't think difficulty slider should influence emotions as their almost an entirely different game system. Although, I suppose a slider for emotional length or effects could be a thing too? For example, moving it could influence how long it takes for a sim to leave the neutral state to happy, or other effects rather than instant "happiness from painting, etc" ie they need to do an activity longer to get the attributed emotion to that activity.
Regardless, this would imply that the difficulty slider controls the difficulty of your Sims' world, and less your Sims themselves. This could also affect various aspects, such as illness (like Sims getting a cold), expenses, and even harder challenges or time it takes to get promotions (maybe a full game month needs to pass before you sims can advance in their career). I really like the new likes and dislikes, these could have a greater effect on socials for example especially in forming relationships or maintaining them for on a higher difficulty too.
Obviously, many game systems would need to be examined, but I believe it could add a type of challenge that would make the game engaging in a new way, and as an option, it's entirely up to the player. Anyway, just an idea!
